LISTEN: 911 call of baggage handler stuck in plane's hold – as he's banned from airline
A BAGGAGE handler who became trapped in a plane after falling asleep in the jet's cargo hold has been banned from the airline.
Baggage handler's 911 call: 'Hello, I'm trapped in this plane'
The man woke up from a nap inside the sealed baggage compartment of Alaskan Airlines Flight 448 while the plane was in the air.
The pilot of the flight, with 170 people aboard, turned the jet around to make an emergency landing after the crew heard banging beneath the aircraft.
The wayward baggage handler, in his early 20s, told authorities he had dozed off inside the forward cargo hold before takeoff.
He later passed a drug test and was released from a hospital where he was taken for evaluation, the airline said.
The unidentified worker was never in danger because the cargo compartment was pressurized and temperature-controlled, airline officials said.
But in a 911 call from inside the belly of the plane, the worker pleaded with the operator for help, screaming, "I can't breathe," before the connection was lost.
A spokesman for Menzies Aviation, who the man worked for, said the worker had been suspended from his normal duties pending an investigation.
But an Alaska Airlines spokesman said: "The employee has been permanently banned from ever working again on an Alaska Airlines operation."
